The present invention relates to manufacturing components and processes for aerospace applications. In particular, the present invention relates to gas turbine engine components and brazing operations for manufacturing gas turbine engine components.
During the manufacture of gas turbine engines, many turbine engine components are secured together with brazing operations. For example, when manufacturing hollow turbine airfoil components (e.g., components of turbine blades and vanes), the passages of the airfoil components are typically covered with cover plates (e.g., meter plates). The cover plates are tack welded onto the airfoil component, and then a brazing alloy is applied externally to fill the gaps between the cover plate and the airfoil component via capillary action. The resulting covered airfoil component is then placed in a furnace to fuse the cover plate to the airfoil component with the brazing alloy. However, the steps of applying the brazing alloy and the furnace treatment are typically repeated to ensure all of the gaps are adequately filled. This increases the time required to manufacture the covered airfoil components.
Additionally, excess amounts of the applied brazing alloy can flow into the hollow regions of the airfoil component, thereby requiring extra steps for applying and stopping of the brazing alloy. Excess amounts of brazing alloy may be particularly problematic if the brazing alloy flows into critical areas of the airfoil components during the brazing operation. This may result in the need to recycle or scrap the airfoil component. Accordingly, to ensure that gaps are adequately filled, while also preventing an excess amount of brazing alloy from being applied, brazing operations require monitoring by personnel. Thus, brazing operations cannot be readily automated without the use of expensive monitoring systems to apply the brazing alloys where needed. Consequentially, there is a need for turbine engine components (e.g., cover plates and airfoils) that are readily securable with brazing operations, thereby reducing the complexity, time, and cost of performing the brazing operations during manufacturing.